Michael Vick should be on the cover of Dog Fancy

June 8, 2007

Look, I love dogs. And dogs like me back. In fact, I get along with the average dog much better than I do the average person. So this disturbs me:

Surry County officials had secured a search warrant in late May based on an informant’s information to look for as many as 30 dog carcasses buried on [Michael Vick’s] property.

You gotta be kidding me. And that’s not really the worst of it. This is:

During an April 25 drug raid on the home Vick owns in the county, authorities seized 66 dogs, including 55 pit bulls, and equipment that suggested someone at the property was involved in a dog fighting operation.

[Other evidence seized by police] included a rape stand, used to hold non-receptive dogs in place for mating; an electric treadmill modified to be used by dogs; a “pry bar” used to open the clamped-down mouths of dogs; and a bloodied piece of carpeting the authorities believe was used in dog fights. Carpeting gives dogs traction in a plywood fighting pit.

A rape stand? Don’t you kind of wish they send Michael Vick to jail for this and he finds out about the “rape stand” himself? I mean, listen to the Humane Society’s description of dog fighting:

two dogs—specifically bred, conditioned, and trained to fight—are placed in a pit (generally a small arena enclosed by plywood walls) to fight each other, for the spectators’ gambling and entertainment. Fights average nearly an hour in length and often last more than two hours. Dogfights end when one of the dogs is no longer willing or able to continue.